AUBURN, Ala. – Cade Belyeu hit a go-ahead grand slam with two strikes and two outs in the eighth inning to lead No. 23 Auburn to a 7-6 win, securing the series against No. 13 Vanderbilt Sunday afternoon at Plainsman Park.
“We lost the battle yesterday, but we had a chance to win the series today and I thought we showed resilience throughout the game,” head coach Butch Thompson said. “Whenever Cade Belyeu does something special, I almost lose it. He is an inspiring player. The guys had to get on before him and had good at-bats, but he put himself in a position for something special to happen.”
Trailing by three with the bases loaded and facing an 0-2 count, Belyeu got a breaking ball from Vanderbilt closer Miller Green (0-1), who he faced in the last three innings of yesterday’s game, and sent it well over the student deck in right center field to give Auburn its first and only lead of the game.
"It was huge,” Belyeu said of his home run and the win. “First of all, credit to the pitching staff for keeping us in the game and allowing us to continue to have at-bats. We struggled at the beginning, but these pitchers showed up and let us stay in the game.
“Going through that at-bat, me and Coach Gross talked and he said let (the pitcher) provide the power. I was just trying to be smooth right there and see the ball as deep as I could. I took a terrible swing on the first pitch, and I was trying to lock in as much as I could. I saw the spin out of his hand on the last pitch, and I got a good swing off. It was a crazy moment."
Trailing 6-1 through four innings, Andreas Alvarez and Ryan Hetzler held the Commodores scoreless and to just one baserunner in the last five frames. Alvarez (1-0) secured his first collegiate win, while Hetzler earned his first save in an Auburn uniform.
“We were down before I came in, and I was just in the bullpen knowing I needed to throw strikes and put up some zeroes to give my team a chance,” Alvarez said. “That was probably the most fun I’ve had on a baseball field in a long time.”
Auburn (16-4, 2-1 SEC) cut its early deficit to one run through three innings thanks to Eric Snow’s two-out double, Cooper McMurray’s nine-pitch walk and Bub Terrell’s RBI single to left center. However, the Commodores (15-5, 1-2 SEC) got the run back and then some with four runs on six hits, including back-to-back homers, to take a 6-1 lead in the top of the fourth.
Eric Guevara started to bring Auburn back with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the fifth, marking his first home run of the season. The Tigers tacked on another to make it a 6-3 game as Vanderbilt made a pair of errors later in the inning.
After allowing the two runs in the fifth, Vanderbilt starter Cody Bowker bounced back to sit Auburn down in order in the sixth and seventh innings. However, at 107 pitches, that would be the end of the day for the junior right hander. He turned it over to the bullpen in the eighth, and the Commodores needed five pitchers to record the three outs in the frame.
Chase Fralick was the first to reach in the bottom of the eighth with a one-out single, and the Tigers proceeded to load the bases on a hit-by-pitch from Chris Rembert and single from Lucas Steele. Freshman reliever England Bryan recorded a strikeout with the bases loaded to bring Belyeu to the plate with two outs, and Vanderbilt went to Green for the left-on-left matchup. The rest is history as Belyeu’s first career grand slam was the big swing Auburn had been looking for.
After Alvarez faced just one batter over the minimum in his 4.0 innings of work, Hetzler came in for the ninth and finished his sixth game of the season. The sophomore right hander struck out Vanderbilt’s two, three and four hitters to end the game.
"It was a lot of fun,” Hetzler said of finishing off the series win. “I did that last year at my past college, but to do it here in the SEC is a big difference. I really felt comfortable out there. The pitching coaches really went over the hitters and what to throw them, and I think I executed the plan pretty good."
The win marked Auburn’s seventh straight series win dating back to the final two series of the 2024 season. It also marked the team’s first SEC-opening series win since 2019 after facing the No. 4, No. 1, No. 3 and No. 8 teams in the country to open league play the last four conference seasons.
Auburn welcomes Alabama State (9-11, 2-0 SWAC) for a midweek game Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT before traveling to No. 23 Kentucky (14-4, 1-2 SEC) for its first SEC road trip.